For Sidelined Boat, Talk Of Reboot

May 4, 2009|-Louis Sahagun, Tribune Newspapers

LONG BEACH, Calif. - — The idea being pitched to Long Beach by a small Las Vegas entertainment company is extraordinarily ambitious, if not downright outlandish: Renovate and restore the Queen Mary and return it to sail the oceans of the world.

Cairngorm Entertainment Group is backing the Queen's Project, a organization soliciting funds for the proposal it estimates could cost as much as $1.5 billion and require at least four years of dry-dock restorations.

Surveying the ship, which has been docked in Long Beach Harbor for 42 years, Robert Sides III, president and chief executive officer of the project, asked, "Can you imagine the grandeur of seeing her sail into harbor?"

Sides said he believed that the ship was worth tens of millions of dollars, adding, "With that money, the city could pay off its deficit and then some."

That kind of talk has attracted considerable attention in City Hall, where some regard the Queen Mary-a floating tourist complex featuring an onboard hotel, restaurants and exhibits-as a questionable city asset.

Long Beach City Councilman Patrick O'Donnell, who met with Sides' group a month ago, said, "It is clear that there is a perception that the asset is not as viable as predicted," he said. "So, I'm open to change."